Sexualization of Young Girls in School Essay Example

📌Category: Business, Child development, Dress Codes, Education, Gender Equality, Psychology, School, Social Issues, United States, World
📌Words: 1106
📌Pages: 5
📌Published: 26 January 2022

Throughout the world, women have been stereotyped and consistently have had to live up to unfair standards compared to guys. This is an issue within my high school system. When I begin to think about a social injustice that was prominent and had long-lasting effects in my life, I think about my high school cross country and track team. Many rules only applied to the girl's team whereas the administrators turned a blind eye to the boys. This happens throughout America and is demeaning to women everywhere.

In America, the sexualization of young women is an ongoing issue, especially in school. It is leading to girls being pressured into society standards and maintaining sexualized violence which leads to a myriad of issues with physical and mental health in teens in America. This is extremely prominent in school systems throughout high school. Many rules are implemented which are specifically directed towards young women in an effort to “not distract” others around them from working. The notion throughout the system is that women's bodies are distracting, but why should it be a women’s job to not distract others? Why should men be looking at and sexualizing young women in general? It is an unfair bias against girls who are just attempting to learn and do extracurricular activities while boys do not have to wonder if they will be reprimanded or sent home for a breach in dress code. 

There is no justification to telling students that their bodies and ways of dressing determine their value or self-worth and this is what these dress codes are forcing students to think when they must live up to their schools' standards. Clothing should not be something that disrupts learning in schools and women should not have to worry about whether the guys will be able to learn based on what they decide to put on from their closet in the morning. There have been many pushes recently to break boundaries and standards that have been upheld for centuries. For example, celebrities are speaking out against rules that sexualize girls compared to boys, however, it simply is not enough if there is no change. This is why in my high school the girls wished to do something about the situation at hand.

In my high school, there are many double standards pertaining to the dress of young women and men. This difference is particularly prominent within sports. The track and cross country girls teams wear uniforms and boys have the same uniforms. The issue is that the boy's team can take off their shirts and girls were never allowed to without consequences, no matter what we had underneath it. They could also wear their shorts if they chose, however, the girls' team consistently would be reprimanded if we did not wear our appointed Nike pros or “spandex” to practice in. This was not the coach's problem, more directly it was an administrative issue. It was throughout the school due to our athletic director. Many felt he was sexist and was only interested in the boys' sports and did not care for girls as much because he paid little to no attention and gave little support, even when girls did very well, except when it came to what we would wear. Even when he would come to the track to stop by, he would see the boys without shirts on and not say anything, however, if we did not wear the practice uniforms we would get a warning and our coach would get a warning as well to make us follow the rule. If the proper uniform was not worn, the girls were not allowed to practice for that day until they could wear the proper shirts. When a girl did not have the proper shirt and was prohibited from practice, it takes away from her time to get better in her sport. This is an unfair advantage to the boy's team who, even if they did not bring a shirt, could practice without it while the girls lost training time. From being a previous varsity runner, I know it is also easier and much nicer to practice without one in the heat of Mississippi during the spring and summer, peak cross country, and track season. The advantages that the boys had over girls simply because of the sexualization of young girls is ridiculous, especially in an afterschool setting with a sports team. This culture is very unfair in the way girls and boys are held to different standards. 

With constant complaining, talk with coaches, athletic directors, and other teammates, the social injustice was still never corrected. This continues to be an issue in high school today. It was unsuccessful in every way. Every day the girls on the team made comments to the coach and complained about how it was unjust for this to be a rule towards us. Due to this, one day the guys were forced to put on a shirt, however, it was one day only and the next they had their shirts off again. A blind eye was turned to the guys in every situation. The athletic director would observe our practices every once in a while and would never reprimand the guys. He seemed to get along with them well, yet the girls were forced to wear our jerseys. If we did not we were not allowed to practice that day and sent home. Every attempt to speak up and speak out about the issue was dismissed. This issue is one that needed to be addressed higher up in the administration and the school system, therefore it was completely unsuccessful. If the girl's team all went higher up than our coach and athletic director, it may have taken hold and created a bigger movement or at least gained equality for the boys and girls team. It is possible that the solution may not have been for girls to be able to take off their tops, but it should have been enforced that guys had to wear their shirts in practice. This issue was not a success because of the informality of our request and the lack of coordination and planning to create a better protest or petition. 

Without a doubt, there is much social injustice within the school system that everyone has to deal with, especially women. It is sad to see that even when a problem is mentioned, it will not always be resolved to make life better for all of those involved. In this case of my high school track and cross country team, nothing was resolved and to this day I still drive around Oxford and see the boys running without their practice uniforms on while the girls are forced to wear theirs. This is not only an issue of my high school, instead, but it is also a social injustice that women face every day when they are sexualized according to how they dress. Not every problem in the world can be solved, however, hopefully, one day it will be brought to light and to the right person who can take steps to equality for men and women of all ages.

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